It’s a hobby that, with all due respect, you expect more from older men in attic rooms. But seventeen-year-old Niels van Dal from Diessen prefers to build miniature villages, forests and people: dioramas. He has only been doing it for a few years, and is already the best in the Netherlands. Niels won ‘The Big Little Train Competition’ at Omroep MAX.
In that program, trains drove through his landscapes. But in all honesty, Niels is more about the landscapes than the trains. Still, he is very proud of his victory. “It feels really bizarre,” says Niels about his victory. “I’ve only been doing it for two years and to be able to call yourself the best model railway builder in the Netherlands cannot be described in words.”
“I built Christmas villages, but after Christmas I had nothing to do.”
Building the dioramas actually started as a kind of ‘corona hobby’, says Niels. “I used to build Christmas villages,” says Niels. “But after Christmas I had nothing left to do. Then I continued to search and ended up here.”
And it turns out he has a talent for it. On his workbench is a Swiss village. Cobblestone streets, pine trees in a landscape covered with moss and tiny people walking or sitting on a bench between the Swiss mountains. With a kind of spreader, Niels lets it snow a little extra on the roofs.
“You can make whatever you want.”
Every tree and every piece of moss has been carefully placed in its place. It’s a lot of fiddling and fiddling, but Niels likes that. “I think it’s nice and relaxing, you can put everything away from you and have a nice hobby.” And: he can come up with everything himself. “You can make anything you want and you can put all your fantasies into it.”
Niels is proud of the dioramas he puts together. And now that his craft room is filling up, he would like to make them for others as well. That dream will come true sooner than expected. “I can already make a modular track of a train line that goes from Vught to Den Bosch and I’m looking forward to that!”